Governing public health in England and Denmark

Author(s):  
Peter Triantafillou ◽  
Naja Vucina

The chapter provides a solid understanding of the historical and political contexts of the obesity and recovery-oriented interventions analysed in the proceeding chapter. The wider purpose of this historical and political contextualisation is to provide an insight into the ways in which health promotion is unfolding in England and Denmark. We argue that three general strategies can be linked to the governing of health in both countries: prevention, cure, and promotion. These are distinct but nevertheless interrelated strategies. All three strategies are relevant today, but health promotion has come to play a hitherto unseen important role in Danish and English health policies since around 1990.

Author(s):  
Margaret Moon

The population of children and adolescents encompasses a remarkable range of physiological, developmental, and experiential phenomena. Considered from a global perspective, differences may seem to overwhelm similarities. This chapter proposes and explains three distinct but interrelated characteristics that should frame ethical considerations of public health approaches to children and adolescents: (1) lack of political, economic, and social power; (2) status as subject to stewardship by adults; and (3) presumed lack of capacity for decision-making.The impact of these shared characteristics is examined using public health approaches to health information, health promotion and access to confidential services. Public health policies that anticipate the risks related to powerlessness and failures of stewardship, and seek to promote respect for developing capacity can help to create conditions in which children can thrive.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Bakogianni

Abstract Issue/ problem Unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, alcohol and tobacco use are leading risk factors for non-communicable diseases. They are all modifiable and health promotion policies can support that. Description of the problem However, information overload, controversies and uncertainties, budget constraints and difficulties in balancing disparate interests are common challenges that can hamper action by policy makers in the field of public health. To support them, the European Commission has created the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Knowledge Gateway. It is a reference point for independent and reliable information to assist policy making; it summarises both the data and knowledge needed to support prioritisation of public health policies and justify investments in health promotion. Results The Knowledge Gateway currently covers the areas of nutrition, physical activity, alcohol, marketing of foods and beverages, and related societal impacts such as disease burden and health inequalities. These topics have been prioritised by Member States representatives and policy makers. The content is organised into concise, well-structured briefs which include definition of each issue, health related effects, and examples of policy recommendations and implemented policies. The high-quality source documents are selected in a tiered approach and are mainly authored or endorsed by authoritative public health organisations. Lessons Judging by the positive feedback received, the Knowledge Gateway is being used widely across Member States and stakeholders. The content of the Knowledge Gateway will be further expanded to support other health priorities such as mental health promotion. Policy makers have a unique, trusted “one-stop-shop” with high quality information to support, justify and strengthen the development of public health policies and health promotion. Key messages The use of reliable authoritative information for the development of public health policies can support the prevention of major non-communicable disease risk factors. The EU Knowledge Gateway is a unique reference point of reliable, independent information to support policy making in the area of public health.


Author(s):  
Sabina Super ◽  
Laurens W A Klerkx ◽  
Niels Hermens ◽  
Maria A Koelen

Summary Intersectoral action is advocated as a social practice that can effectively address health inequalities and related social issues. Existing knowledge provides insight into factors that may facilitate or hinder successful intersectoral action, but not much is known about how intersectoral action evolves and becomes embedded in local health policies. This is where this study aims to make its contribution, by adopting the multilevel perspective on transitions, which is increasingly used to study social innovation in sustainability transitions but has not yet been applied to public health and health promotion. Through this perspective, it was unravelled how intersectoral action between youth-care organizations and community sports clubs became embedded in local health policies of Rotterdam, a large city in the Netherlands. A single explorative case study was conducted based on content analysis of policy documents and 15 in-depth interviews with policy officers, managers and field workers operating in the fields of youth and sports in Rotterdam. The findings showed that intersectoral action between community organizations and policymakers evolves through congruent processes at different levels that changed institutional logics. Moreover, it emerged that policymakers and other actors that advocate novel social practices and act as boundary spanners can adopt multiple strategies to embed these practices in local health policy. The multi-level perspective adds value to earlier approaches to research intersectoral collaboration for health promotion as it allows to better capture the politics involved in the social innovation processes. However, further sharpening and more comprehensive application of transition concepts to study transitions in public health and health promotion is needed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Binod Kumar Karki

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase and improve their health. Health Promotion has globally emerged as a separate stream of public health but in Nepal it is still a relatively new concept. There are challenges related to research in the field of health promotion. Health promotion requires policy makers across all government departments to make health a central line of government policy. The aims of this study is to discover key policies and strategies of health promotion in Nepal and to identify the different activities and practices carried out by them. This study is based on review of the national health policies that were published in different period of time. The paper argues that health promotion requires policy makers across all government bodies to make health a central line of government policy since health policy is one of the most important aspects of the livelihood development of a country.


Author(s):  
Diana Hart

All countries are faced with the problem of the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCD): implement prevention strategies eff ectively, keep up the momentum with long term benefi ts at the individual and the population level, at the same time tackling hea lth inequalities. Th e aff ordability of therapy and care including innovative therapies is going to be one of the key public health priorities in the years to come. Germany has taken in the prevention and control of NCDs. Germany’s health system has a long history of guaranteeing access to high-quality treatment through universal health care coverage. Th r ough their membership people are entitled to prevention and care services maintaining and restoring their health as well as long term follow-up. Like in many other countries general life expectancy has been increasing steadily in Germany. Currently, the average life expectancy is 83 and 79 years in women and men, respectively. Th e other side of the coin is that population aging is strongly associated with a growing burden of disease from NCDs. Already over 70 percent of all deaths in Germany are caused by four disease entities: cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes. Th ese diseases all share four common risk factors: smoking, alcohol abuse, lack of physical activity and overweight. At the same time, more and more people become long term survivors of disease due to improved therapy and care. Th e German Government and public health decision makers are aware of the need for action and have responded by initiating and implementing a wide spectrum of activities. One instrument by strengthening primary prevention is the Prevention Health Care Act. Its overarching aim is to prevent NCDs before they can manifest themselves by strengthening primary prevention and health promotion in diff erent sett ings. One of the main emphasis of the Prevention Health Care Act is the occupational health promotion at the workplace.


Author(s):  
NA Moiseeva ◽  
IL Kholstinina ◽  
MF Knyazeva ◽  
TV Mazhaeva ◽  
OL Malykh ◽  
...  

Introduction: Implementation of the Federal Public Health Promotion Project should raise awareness and develop skills of healthy nutrition in children, thus contributing to disease prevention. Our objective was to evaluate the results of pilot nutrition monitoring in school-aged children of the Sverdlovsk Region as part of the Federal Public Health Promotion Project and the National Demography Project. Results: We established that school meals were generally satisfactory: the rations complied with physiological needs of children in terms of their nutritional value, basic nutrients, energy, and distribution of calories by main meals. We noted differences in the cost and nutritional value of meals and the variety of dishes and foodstuffs used between urban and rural areas. As a rule, pupils have one or two school meals a day. Outside of school, their consumption of dairy products and fruit is limited. Conclusions: Our findings may promote the elaboration of municipal programs aimed, inter alia, at changing the amount of sugar and salt used in the manufacture of public catering products, the cost of dishes with a high content of sugar, saturated fats, and salt, and subsidies on healthy nutrition.


Author(s):  
Blánaid Daly ◽  
Paul Batchelor ◽  
Elizabeth Treasure ◽  
Richard Watt

Public health is a key concern of modern dental practitioners as they continue to play a vital role in the health of populations across the world. The second edition of Essential Dental Public Health identifies the links between clinical practice and public health with a strong emphasis on evidence-based medicine. Fully revised and updated for a second edition, this textbook is split into four parts covering all the need-to-know aspects of the subject: the principles of dental public health, oral epidemiology, prevention and oral health promotion, and the governance and organization of health services. Essential Dental Public Health is an ideal introduction to the field for dentistry undergraduates, as well as being a helpful reference for postgraduates and practitioners.


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